Dear Friend

Color Of Change is teaming up with the Baltimore Education Coalition to fundraise for school supplies and backpacks for kids in Baltimore and we need your help. We know how important it is to start the school year off right and we know how hard it can be on parents and caregivers to do all the work alone.

Will you join us by donating $4 today to our books and backpacks initiative to raise $10,000 for Baltimore youth? At the end of this month we will be throwing a block party to hand out supplies in a stress-free way that celebrates the kids and community.

We chose Baltimore because Black youth have it especially hard in the school system there even though they make up 80 percent of the student population in the city. Black girls are disproportionately punished and suspended more than any other student body, largely for speaking out about unjust conditions. And earlier this year, Baltimore’s school system was in the national news when dozens of public schools across the city had no heating in the middle of winter. Kids were attending classes wearing full-on mittens and socks and since then we have been determined to show up for the youth in Baltimore.

Black youth deserve to have a strong start and the right supplies for a new school year. Donate $4 now to remind Black kids that they matter in Baltimore

We at Color Of Change know the importance of supplies when pushing back against a system. Black youth deserve to be invested in and celebrated as they enter another school year under conditions no youth trying to learn should have to endure.

With your help, we want to raise funds to:

1. Purchase backpacks, writing supplies, calculators, notebooks, folders and binders to be sorted and packaged and ready to go for the new year.
2. Throw a block party in Baltimore with the Baltimore Education Coalition to engage and celebrate the community while also providing a shame free, anonymous atmosphere for both youth and parents to pick up school supplies.
3. Help to build a political base and draw attention to the 2018 gubernatorial election this fall with local organizers to demand better infrastructure and resources for Baltimore’s public education system.

Will you build Black futures by donating $4 to our ‘back to school’ campaign now?

As the Trump Administration continues to actively pave the way to fully remove affirmative action and protections from racial discrimination in schools, we know that it is going to take campaigns and initiatives both big and small to show Black kids that their lives matter. We can start right now, together, by giving kids the right start for a new school year.

Join us in spreading some much needed Black joy by getting us to our $10,000 goal to support young people in Baltimore. Donate $4 now.

Until justice is real,

–Brandi, Jade, Johnny, Evan, Future, Angela, Samantha, Mary, Chad, Scott B. and the Color Of Change team